How Colorado Dems beat attacks on the Clean Power Plan

DENVER — A months-long attempt by Republican lawmakers to halt state action on the Clean Power Plan came to a predictable end Wednesday in the Democratic-majority state House.

The House Transportation and Energy Committee shot down two bills attempting to stymie the Clean Power Plan, both on party-line votes. Both proposals started in the Senate and were sponsored by Republican Sens. John Cooke of Greeley and Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling. Republican Rep. Tim Dore of Elizabeth carried both in the House.

The first proposal would have set up a $5.4 million “ratepayer protection fund” within the Public Utilities Commission to cover any electricity cost increases tied to Colorado’s implementation of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

The bill acknowledged that the Hickenlooper administration had committed to a state plan that would not hike utility rates. Nonetheless, the measure stated that implementing Environmental Protection Agency rules related to the power plan would increase the cost and hinder the reliability of electricity services. As a result, the state should bear the implementation costs, not the ratepayers.

The second proposal was more directly tied to the February 9 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily halt implementation of the Clean Power Plan. That measure would have ordered Colorado to halt its action on the EPA rules related to the Clean Power Plan, noting that the state should not spend money on the federal mandate “that may never be reinstated in its current form.”

A healthy environment is a human right, said House Majority Leader Crisanta Duran of Denver at a press conference championing the Clean Power Plan held before the hearings.

“We will fight proposals that will make our air dirtier or our water less clean. And we will fight to make sure that every single man, woman, and child in this state can live in a home and a community that is free from pollution.”

Angela Alfaro of the cultural advocacy group Servicios de la Raza told reporters Latinos often live in areas with direct exposure to pollution from power plants and highways.

“Our government should act affirmatively and with resolve to address this major issue,” she said.

“We applaud our legislators who sided with our children and future generations today instead of the big polluters,” Stevens said

Wednesday’s committee action marks the end of Republican efforts this session to halt the state’s progress on the Clean Power Plan.

The most significant environmental battle of the session took place during debate over the 2016-17 budget, when the Joint Budget Committee deadlocked over funding the state’s Air Pollution Control Division, which is responsible for implementing a variety of air quality mandates, including the power plan.

Democrats on the budget committee refused to entertain any cuts to the division’s budget. Republicans fought back by not allowing the division to be funded at all, which would have resulted in the layoff of 95 employees and a budget cut of about $8.4 million.

House Democrats restored the division’s funding during the budget debate. Senate Republicans responded by cutting the division’s budget by roughly $328,000, the amount they said it would cost to implement the power plan.

When the budget returned to the Joint Budget Committee, the group compromised on cutting the Air Pollution Control Division budget around $112,000, but without slashing staff.

Republican lawmakers argue the Clean Power Plan, which would require Colorado to cut power plant emissions by 28 percent by 2030, will kill the state’s struggling coal industry.

Arch Coal, the state’s largest coal company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. Western Slope lawmakers have said the loss of coal mining jobs has devastated local economies, particularly in Delta County, where more than 800 mining positions have been slashed in the past three years.

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About the Author

Marianne Goodland

has been a political journalist since 1998. She covered the state capitol for the Silver & Gold Record from 1998 to 2009 and for The Colorado Statesman in 2010-11 and 2013-14. Since 2010 she also has covered the General Assembly for newspapers in northeastern Colorado. She was recognized with awards from the Colorado Press Association for feature writing and informational graphics for her work with the Statesman in 2012.

1 Comment

Agreed. Note that the coal representative said they lost hundreds of jobs over the last three years! That’s well before the Clean Power Plan could have had any effect. It is mostly cheap gas and renewables that is cutting into coal’s business. It’s called competition. I thought these conservatives liked competition. I guess not. Just welfare for themselves, like bankruptcies ( cheating others on what you owe).

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